Cricket has been retained for Asian Games 2026, while Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is set to make its debut at the continental meet.
The Asian Games 2026 are scheduled to be held in the Aichi and Nagoya prefectures of Japan from September 19 to October 4. This will be the fourth time that cricket will be making an appearance in the Asian Games programme.
Cricket made its debut as a medal event in the Asian Games at Guangzhou 2010 and returned at Incheon 2014, although the matches were not accorded international status.
However, once the sport returned to the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, all matches were granted international status by the International Cricket Council (ICC) – the global governing body for cricket.